1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope used by inserting it into a human body, and an endoscope system including the endoscope.
2. Description of Related Art
Endoscopes are known as a means to observe organization and to carry out direct treatments by being inserted into a human body. A soft endoscope insertion section, inserted into the human body, is disposed on a tip of the endoscope main body gripped by the operator of the endoscope. Here, some conventional endoscopes have a detachable endoscope main body and a detachable endoscope insertion section (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-14626). The endoscope disclosed by Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. 2000-14626 is provided with a positioning mechanism for positioning an operation section, i.e., the endoscope main body and a soft section (i.e., the endoscope insertion section). A die (i.e., a positioning mechanism for determining an original point of a driving shaft) is freely disposed rotatively near the soft section. The operation section is provided an origin pin (i.e., a positioning mechanism compressed to a driving shaft by a spring) and a reference hole serving as an origin, to which the origin pin can be inserted, is formed on the driving shaft. When the positioning mechanism is used, after the origins are determined with respect to the operation section and the soft section respectively, the soft section is connected to the operation section. In addition, a connector to be connected with the optical fiber is disposed in a section where the operation section is attached to the insertion section. The structure of the connector is configured so that automatic positioning is carried out by inserting a pin disposed on the insertion section into a groove disposed on the operation section.